Tag: National Association of Realtors

Becoming a ‘Realtor’ Is Optional, So Why Do It?

Golden Real Estate is a Realtor brokerage, meaning that all our agents belong to a local Realtor association and thereby are members of the Colorado Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.

“Realtor” is a trademark, and only members of a Realtor association can call themselves Realtors. That’s also why Realtor, like Kleenex, should always be capitalized.

It’s estimated that only half of all licensed real estate agents are Realtors, but you have to be a Realtor if you want to work for us or any other Realtor brokerage. All the major franchises are Realtor brokerages, but there are lots of non-Realtor brokerages that an agent can join if he or she wants to avoid the $500+ annual dues to be a Realtor.

So what’s in it for an agent to be a Realtor, paying over $5,000 per decade for the privilege?

First of all, non-Realtors can’t work for a Realtor brokerage such as ours. They’d have to be independent or join a non-Realtor brokerage.  Some brokerages, such as HomeSmart, Your Castle, and Resident Realty, have created both Realtor and non-Realtor brokerages with near-identical or identical logos and near identical names so that the average client or prospective client would have no idea that the agent they are speaking with might not be a Realtor.

I feel that’s deceptive advertising, which violates the Realtor Code of Ethics, but non-Realtors aren’t bound by that code. There are benefits to being a NAR member that wouldn’t mean much to consumers. More than that, however, I believe in “paying one’s dues.”  All agents benefit from NAR’s lobbying on our behalf and for property rights in general, but only Realtors pay for it. Non-Realtors benefit from that lobbying but are, in effect, getting a free ride.

Unlike Most Professionals, Real Estate Agents Work for Free Most of the Time

Most professionals I can think of get paid for the work they perform. Some even charge for estimates, and others, including surgeons, charge even when they fail at what they were hired to do.  

Real estate is different. Most of the time we are giving our services away to customers with only a vague hope of a payday down the road. Sometimes we invest a great deal of money marketing properties that never sell, only to have the seller relist the home at a lower price with another agent who then enjoys a pay day.

I had about 30 closings last year, and I drove 15,000 miles. Do you think I drove 500 miles for each successful closing?  No, I drove most of those miles for buyers and sellers who received my services for free without any compensation for my time and travel.

This is okay with me. I love real estate. When it produces a payday, I know that it makes up for the uncompensated efforts I expended on behalf of other clients.

Occasionally I have a buyer who has me show him or her the exact house he or she wants to buy, and I handle the transaction — one showing, few miles of driving around, one contract written, one inspection handled, one closing attended — earning myself a 5-figure payday. The buyer, seeing how easy it was, might reasonably expect a rebate of my commission. But what about those times I showed a buyer 100 different homes, wrote one or two unsuccessful contracts, only to have that buyer rent instead of buy — or the buyer goes to an open house and buys without me?

A few years ago, I was considering listing 5 acres 30 miles up a canyon for $125,000, but the seller was so uncooperative that I ultimately declined the listing — but not before I had made three trips to the property and on one of those trips did $1,000 damage to my car’s underbody on his jagged culvert!  

Such is the life of a real estate agent. We may seem overpaid when we are paid 5-figure commissions on a transaction, and you may think that’s unfair, but if we didn’t have those closings to make up for all the times we work for free or spend without reimbursement, it might be hard to justify becoming a real estate agent. 

As it is, the average member of the National Association of Realtors earns less than $50,000 in gross commission income per year — before accounting for car, phone, MLS fees, Realtor dues, computer hardware & software, E&O insurance, and more.

Warning: Being ‘Anti-Woke’ Could Be a Realtor Code of Ethics Violation

Dictionary.com defines “wokeism” as “the promotion of liberal progressive ideology and policy as an expression of sensitivity to systemic injustices and prejudices.” The political right in America has made “wokeism” one of its favorite punching bags.

June is being celebrated as “Pride Month,” and Realtors with conservative leanings might want to keep in mind that any expression of anti-gay or anti-trans opinions could be taken as a violation of Article 10 of the Realtor Code of Ethics, which states that NAR members shall not discriminate “on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” Since ethics complaints are initiated not by NAR, but by individual members against each other or by the general public, this matter should not be taken lightly.

Opportunities abound to show one’s “anti-wokeism” through, for example, social media likes and posts. Take, for example, right-wing attacks and boycotts against Disney World, Target and Bud Light because of their alignment with LGBTQ issues or celebration of Pride Month.

Realtors who agree with such anti-LGBTQ sentiment would be wise to keep their feelings to themselves. That advice would apply as well to any expression of prejudice against other protected classes enumerated from Article 10 above.

Why Wouldn’t a Listing Agent Want to Maximize the Exposure of His Listings?

Although the average real estate agent barely makes a living and either has a second income source or a high-earning spouse, about 10% of agents earn a lot of money — and want to earn even more.

Myself, I make a very good living, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this week’s column while Rita and I are on vacation in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. (I’ll be home by the time this column appears in print.)

But my business model does not involve doing every single thing I can to maximize my personal income. I get more satisfaction from trying to maximize my service to others, including my clients and the unknown readers of this blog. Since long before I became a Realtor, I lived by a motto that has mistakenly been attributed to Confucius. “Concentrate on giving, and the getting will take care of itself.”

My Denver Post column — what newspapers call an “advertorial” — is evidence of that strategy. As a former newspaper journalist trained on the metro desk of The Washington Post in 1968, I decided at the very beginning of my real estate career in 2003 that I’d spend my marketing dollars on buying newspaper space to publish a helpful real estate column.

It has paid off quite well. Unlike every real estate agent I know, I have never made a cold call or prospected in any way to get buyers and sellers to hire me. (This month, I just realized, is the 20th anniversary of getting my real estate license and starting as a broker associate at the Union Blvd. office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, now called Coldwell Banker Realty for some reason I have yet to learn.)

That column, which also appears in three Jefferson County weekly newspapers, is my sole outreach to potential clients, and every week I get one or more calls from someone who says, in effect, “I’ve been reading your column for many years, knowing the day would come when I’d call you to sell my home. Today’s that day!”

The above is a long-winded way of saying that I’m happy to abide by the Realtor Code of Ethics (and state law) which says I should put clients’ interest ahead of my own. This brings me back to the question posed in this article’s headline.

Last week, members of REcolorado, Denver’s MLS, received an email detailing how easy our MLS has made it to withhold a listing from all syndication, including Zillow, Redfin, and even REcolorado’s own consumer-facing website, www.REcolorado.com.

That email cast its guidance in the context of a seller requesting such limited exposure, but why would any seller give his/her listing agent informed consent to limit the exposure of their home’s listing to only their listing agent’s own website or circle of prospects? I suspect the only reason a listing agent would convince his or her client to approve such a strategy would be to maximize the chance that the agent wouldn’t have to compensate a buyer’s agent, thereby doubling his own commission earnings. That is not what anyone would call putting their clients’ interests ahead of their own.

NAR’s Annual Survey of Buyers and Sellers Shows Big Deviations From Past Years

 Every year the National Association of Realtors (NAR) surveys buyers and sellers of primary residences on a variety of topics. Usually, the changes from one year to the next are fairly minor, but the most recent survey (covering the period from July 2021 through June 2022) produced some big statistical deviations from prior years. Here are some of the findings that stood out to me.

1)   The percentage of first-time buyers dropped to a record low of just 27%, beating the previous record low of 30% in 1987 — 35 years ago! In the 2020-2021 survey it was 34%. The average age of first-time buyers jumped from 33 to 36. The average age of repeat buyers also rose — from 56 to 59.

2)   88% of all buyers were White, the highest percentage since the 1990s. Meanwhile, the percentage of buyers who were Black and Asian/Pacific Islander both dropped by half, from 6% to 3%. The percentage of buyers who were Hispanic/Latino rose slightly from 7% to 8%.

3)  Buyers moved an average of 50 miles from where they lived before, up from 15 miles the prior year, which was as high as it had been since at least the 1980s. (See chart below.) So, where did they move? Suburbs took a big hit, plunging from 51% to 39%, while rural and small town destinations jumped by half — 12% to 19% for rural areas and 20% to 29% for small towns. The NAR survey attributes that change to the pandemic’s effect of encouraging work from home. “Zoom towns were boom towns.”

4)   While only 3% of first-time buyers paid cash for their homes, 27% of repeat buyers paid cash, up from 17% the prior year. The survey attributes this to the surge in equity which homeowners had experienced in recent years, especially during the pandemic, providing them with lots of cash to spend on their replacement homes.

5)  How long buyers expect to remain in the home they just purchased had held steady since 2009 at 15 years for repeat buyers and 10 years for first-time buyers. The NAR survey showed a huge jump in that expectation for first-time homebuyers — from 10 years to 18 years. The expectation of repeat buyers remained unchanged at 15 years.

6)   The percentage of first-time buyers who had been renters plunged from 73% to 64%, while the number who moved from living with family or friends jumped from 21% to 27%. (See chart below.)

Click here to view the full summary of NAR’s 2022 survey of buyers and sellers.

Thanksgiving 2022 – In Spite of Everything, Much to Be Thankful for

First of all let me thank The Denver Post for making it possible for me to reach its many readers for well over a decade in this YourHub ad. I estimate that we get 90% of our real estate business from people who read this column and are inspired to contact us when they have a real estate need. Although we pay for this ad and for its placement on page 3 — the best ad location in any newspaper — they don’t need to sell it to us, and I thank them for letting me advertise here.

The feedback I get from many readers is that this is the first place they turn to when they receive this newspaper. What a great compliment that is, so my second “thanksgiving” is to you, my readers for following this column each week and thinking to call us when you have a real estate need. You can count on me to continue writing this column week after week and year after year so long as The Denver Post keeps it affordable!

By the way, should you move or stop subscribing to this newspaper, remember that I send it by email to over 1,400 subscribers (free, of course), and I would be happy to add you to that list.

Next, I am thankful to Golden Real Estate’s broker associates who continue to excel in serving our clients year-round. They share their commission earnings with the brokerage, of course, but are compensated for that    in various ways, including having their listings featured in this ad and being themselves promoted at the bottom of each week’s ad. They are all excellent Realtors who share our company’s values, an example of which is that the majority of them drive Tesla cars! I am blessed that they choose to be associated with Golden Real Estate and am happy to share with them many of the leads which come to me from readers of this column.

(By the way, we welcome applications from other licensed agents, as long as they share our values and are Realtor members.)

One of the unexpected secrets to Golden Real Estate’s success has been my personal outspokenness politically, which has meant disparaging former President Trump and his MAGA allies in my Talking Turkey column. There was initially some concern that we would lose business, but the opposite has been true. Readers who have appreciated my political stand have chosen Golden Real Estate as their brokerage because of my writings. The gained business has far outweighed the lost business, which I hope inspires other Realtors and brokerages to be less shy about sharing their patriotic beliefs, whether left or right. As citizens, let’s put country before self, however that looks.

In that regard, I am especially thankful for the results of the midterm elections.  And I’m guessing that next year I’ll be thankful that Donald Trump has entered the 2024 presidential race. May he do even more damage to the MAGA cause that he has already done!  More importantly, however, may his candidacy contribute to the revival of the mainstream Republican Party,  re-earning its designation as the “Grand Old Party.” That was the party of my father, and I miss it!

As always, I continue to be thankful for the contribution made by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to protecting and promoting home ownership and the real estate industry. Only half of licensed real estate agents pay dues to NAR through their local Realtor association, but NAR continues to serve the entire industry as well as the general public by lobbying against negative legislation and government regulation on both the national and state level. Thank you, NAR!

I am grateful, too, to the Golden Chamber of Commerce and all metro area chambers of commerce for all they do to serve the business community, and I’m proud that Golden Real Estate pays dues to our own Chamber, regardless of the direct benefit we may gain from membership. It’s our way of giving back to the community by providing sustenance to an organization that serves the community.

We are also grateful to have made the move to downtown Golden, now occupying a storefront next to Ace Hi Tavern. Come by and say hello, perhaps during December 2nd’s candlelight walk!

I also thank Wendy Renee of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation for choosing to office inside Golden Real Estate’s storefront. She adds important expertise to our office and helps us to serve the many walk-ins we are welcoming in our new location.

Last but not least, Rita and I are thankful for our relationship with each other and our extended family. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Realtor Magazine Promotes Electric Vehicles in a 4-Page Article  

The summer 2022 edition of Realtor Magazine focuses on sustainability, and one of its articles is titled “Learning to Love EVs.” Click here to read the article online.

The article encourages NAR’s one million members to make their next car electric, but omits one selling point I take advantage of every April — I deduct over $10,000 for business mileage even though the cost of charging is near zero thanks to an abundance of free charging stations. Even if pay for the electricity — whether at home or at Tesla Supercharger or a DC Fast Charging station — the cost of the electricity is so much lower per mile than the cost of a gas-powered car, that the standard IRS deduction per business mile traveled becomes a nice source of tax-free income for Realtors or any other person who uses their personal car for business.

National and State Realtor Associations Make the Environment and Sustainability a Priority Issue  

Many people, I’ve found, assume that Realtors, especially the top producers, must be conservatives who resist social policies, tax increases and liberal agenda items in general. That could include denial of human-caused climate change and opposition to any mandates that interfere with “individual freedom” such as mask or vaccine mandates.

Well, I’m pleased to report that, at the association level, we’re a pretty liberal bunch. Yes, I know a few Realtors who are hard-core Trumpers and live by the words of Tucker Carlson, but they’re in the minority.

Those Realtors would not have been pleased when the president of the National Association of Realtors apologized for NAR’s support of racist policies earlier in its 110-year history in his speech to the annual convention. Compare that to conservatives across the country wanting to ban books and classroom discussion about “critical race theory,” intended to rally the conversative base to vote out liberals on local school boards and elsewhere.

Then I read on pages 16-18 of the May issue of Colorado Realtor Magazine about NAR’s commitment to “ESG+R,” which stands for Environmental, Social, Governance + Resilience.

As the article explains, ESG “is a set of standards for a company or practitioner’s operations that investors (or consumers) use to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria measure how that company or practitioner perform as a steward of nature. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance refers to policies around leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights. In short, ESG evaluates if a company, organization, or practitioner is operating sustainably. Globally, sustainability is rated as an important purchase criterion for 60% of consumers.”

The Realtor associations go beyond ESG to add R for Resilience, which is an aspect of sustainability.

Knowing Golden Real Estate’s (and my personal) commitment to such issues, you can understand how pleased I was to read of NAR’s commitment to the same values.

The fact that the Colorado Association of Realtors (CAR) featured this NAR initiative in their monthly magazine suggests that Colorado Realtors are, through their association, fully on board with this issue.

What follows are some excerpts from the article which spoke to me:

“Sustainability is the evolution of long-term value creation for people, planet, and the economy. If sustainability is the journey, then ESG is how we measure progress,” said Ryan Frazier, CEO of Frazier Global, a Colorado-based management consulting and environmental, social, governance (ESG) advisory business.

“We must integrate a culture of sustainability throughout our association and industry. By building a resilient real estate market today, we can create healthy, vibrant, and diverse communities for generations to come,” said 2022 NAR President Leslie Rouda Smith.

“Leading by example, NAR is driving the real estate industry toward a more efficient and sustainable future,” said NAR CEO Bob Goldberg. “As part of this responsibility, we are strengthening the association’s support of sustainability efforts and increasing engagement on policies and programs that prioritize viability, resiliency, and adaptability. We are working to generate meaningful, lasting change that will benefit both current and future generations.”

Millennials now make up 43% of homebuyers, the most of any generation, according to a 2021 report from the National Association of Realtors—and that number is only predicted to rise. And this generation has a reputation for being values-driven in their approach to their money and their careers. These choices drive where they choose to work, play, and buy a home. About one-third of millennials often or exclusively use investments that take ESG factors into account, compared with 19% of Gen Z, 16% of Gen X and 2% of baby boomers, according to a Harris Poll on behalf of CNBC, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults ages 30 to 40 on a variety of topics. The escalating importance of ESG doesn’t just impact homebuyer sentiment. It will also matter to brokerage firms looking to hire the best and brightest agents. Companies that promote strong ESG values tend to attract and retain the best talent.

The Purple Report on ESG and Real Estate [by NAR] had 703 respondents. 51% live in Colorado and own a home or want to own a home in Colorado and 49% live outside the state but expressed an interest in buying a home in the state.

KEY FINDINGS:

When asked, are you more likely or less likely to work with a Realtor who has a proficient level of knowledge and training on sustainability and sustainable housing practices when it comes to buying, selling, or investing in a home? 70% of respondents were somewhat or much more likely.

When asked, do you agree or disagree with the viewpoint that as the number of severe weather conditions, droughts, wildfires increase due in part to climate change, and with the potential risk to homes and commercial properties, Realtors need to be helping provide solutions that address climate change risks? 67% of respondents said they agree. The number jumped to 80% among those ages 18-24, and to 79% of those earning $150,000 a year or more.

As the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics preamble tells us, “Under all is the land.”  Our planet is the one resource we all depend on, as will our heirs. The best time to care for it — and for them — is now.

Here’s How the National Association of Realtors Advises Its Members on How to Handle Multiple Offer Situations  

Many buyers and sellers and their agents have to deal with competing offers for new listings. The Colorado Real Estate Commission has offered no guidance on how to deal  (or not deal) with multiple offer situations. Below, however, is NAR’s guidance based on the articles and Standards of Practice from the Realtor Code of Ethics. Note: The Code only applies to Realtors, and roughly half of licensed real estate brokers are not members of their local Realtor association.

“When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, Realtors® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their clients. This obligation to the client’s interests is primary, but it does not relieve Realtors of their obligation to treat all parties honestly.” (from Article 1 of the 2014 Realtors Code of Ethics)

“Realtors shall submit offers and counter-offers objectively and as quickly as possible.” (Standard of Practice 1-6)

Perhaps no situation routinely faced by Realtors can be more frustrating, fraught with potential for misunderstanding and missed opportunity, and elusive of a formulaic solution than presenting and negotiating multiple purchase or lease offers and/or counter-offers on the same property. Consider the competing dynamics. Listing brokers are charged with helping sellers get the highest price and the most favorable terms for their property. Buyers’ brokers help their clients purchase property at the lowest price and on favorable terms. Balanced against the Code’s mandate of honesty is the imperative to refrain from making disclosures that may not, in the final analysis, be in a client’s interests. (Revised 11/01)

Will disclosing the existence of one offer make a second potential purchaser more likely to sign a full price purchase offer—or to pursue a different opportunity? Will telling several potential purchasers that each will be given a final opportunity to make their best offer result in spirited competition for the seller’s property—or in a table devoid of offers? What is fair? What is honest? What is to be done? Who decides? And why is there not a simple way to deal with these situations? As Realtors know, there are almost never simple answers to complex situations. And multiple offer presentations and negotiations are nothing if not complex. But, al-though there is not a single, standard approach to dealing with multiple offers, there are fundamental principles to guide Realtors. While these guidelines focus on negotiation of purchase offers, the following general principles are equally applicable to negotiation of lease agreements. (Revised 11/01)

Be aware of your duties to your client — seller or buyer — both as established in the Code of Ethics and in state law and regulations. (Revised 5/01)

The Code requires you to protect and promote your client’s interests. State law or regulations will likely also spell out duties you owe to your client. The Code requires that you be honest with all parties. State law or regulations will likely spell out duties you owe to other parties and to other real estate professionals. Those duties may vary from the general guidance offered here. Realtors need to be familiar with applicable laws and regulations. Be aware of your duties to other parties — both as established in the Code of Ethics and in state law and regulation. Remember that the decisions about how offers will be presented, how offers will be negotiated, whether counter-offers will be made and ultimately which offer, if any, will be accepted, are made by the seller — not by the listing broker. (Revised 5/01)

Remember that decisions about how counter-offers will be presented, how counter-offers will be negotiated, and whether a counter-offer will be accepted, are made by the buyer — not by the buyer’s broker. (Adopted 5/01)

When taking listings, explain to sellers that receiving multiple competing offers is a possibility. Explain the various ways they may be dealt with (e.g., acceptance of the “best” offer; informing all potential purchasers that other offers are on the table and inviting them to make their best offer; countering one offer while putting the others to the side; countering one offer while rejecting the other offers, etc.). Explain the pluses and minuses of each approach (patience may result in an even better offer; inviting each offeror to make their “best” offer may produce a better offer[s] than what is currently on the table—or may discourage offerors and result in their pursuing other properties). Explain that your advice is just that and that your past experience cannot guarantee what a particular buyer may do. Remember — and remind the seller — that the decisions are theirs to make — not yours, and that you are bound by their lawful and ethical instructions. When entering into buyer representation agreements, explain to buyers that you or your firm may represent more than one buyer-client, that more than one of your clients or your firm’s clients may be interested in purchasing the same property, and how offers and counter-offers will be negotiated if that happens. (Adopted 5/01)

Explain the pluses and minuses of various negotiating strategies (that a “low” initial offer may result in the buyer purchasing the desired property at less than the listed price — or in another, higher offer from another buyer being accepted; that a full price offer may result in the buyer purchasing the desired property while paying more than the seller might have taken for the property, etc.). (Adopted 5/01)

Explain to the buyer that sellers are not bound by the Code of Ethics. Sellers, in multiple offer situations, are not prohibited from “shopping” offers. Real estate brokers may, unless prohibited by law or regulation, “shop” offers. Therefore, Realtors assisting purchasers in formulating purchase offers should advise those purchasers it is possible that the existence, terms, and conditions of any offer they make may be disclosed to other purchasers by sellers or by sellers’ representatives except where such disclosure is prohibited by law or regulation. (Adopted 5/05)

Remember — and remind the buyer — that the decisions are theirs to make—not yours, and that you are bound by their lawful and ethical instructions. (Adopted 5/01)

If the possibility of multiple offers — and the various ways they might be dealt with — were not discussed with the seller when their property was listed and it becomes apparent that multiple offers may be (or have been) made, immediately explain the options and alternatives available to the sellers — and get direction from them. When representing sellers or buyers, be mindful of Standard of Practice 1-6’s charge to “. . . submit offers and counter-offers objectively and as quickly as possible.” (Revised 5/01)

With the seller’s approval “…divulge the existence of offers on the property” consistent with Standard of Practice 1-15. (Adopted 11/02)

While the Code of Ethics does not expressly mandate “fairness” (given its inherent subjectivity), remember that the Preamble has long noted that “. . . Realtor has come to connote competency, fairness, and high integrity. . . .” If a seller directs you to advise offerors about the existence of other purchase offers, fairness dictates that all offerors or their representatives be so informed. Article 3 calls on Realtors to “. . . cooperate with other brokers except when cooperation is not in the client’s best interest.” Implicit in cooperation is forthright sharing of information related to cooperative transactions and potential cooperative transactions. Much of the frustration that occurs in multiple offer situations results from cooperating brokers being unaware of the status of offers they have procured. Listing brokers should make reasonable efforts to keep cooperating brokers informed. Similarly, buyer brokers should make reasonable efforts to keep listing brokers informed about the status of counter-offers their seller-clients have made. (Revised 5/01)

Realize that in multiple offer situations only one offer will result in a sale and one (or more) potential purchasers will be disappointed that their offer was not accepted. While little can be done to assuage their disappointment, fair and honest treatment throughout the process; coupled with prompt, ongoing and open communication, will enhance the likelihood they will feel they were treated fairly and honestly. In this regard, “. . . Realtors can take no safer guide than that which has been handed down through the centuries, embodied in the Golden Rule, ‘Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.’ ” (from the Preamble to the Code of Ethics). (Revised 5/05)

No Firm Experimented More With Co-op Commissions Than Trelora  

Trelora began as an outspoken anti-Realtor brokerage that also was against paying buyer’s agents a co-op commission. (The name “Trelora” was derived from a scrambling of the word “Realtor.”)  However, Trelora has made an about-face in the last couple of years and is now both a Realtor brokerage and a brokerage that offers 2.5% to 2.8% co-op commissions on its listings.

When it started as a non-Realtor brokerage in 2010, its first 96 listings all advertised a co-op commission of $2.80, an apparent play on the common co-op of 2.80%. Perhaps they wanted buyer agents to misread the co-op on the MLS and only realize later that they had worked for free. 

By April 2013, Trelora had adopted the practice of recommending to sellers a flat co-op of $3,000, although it wasn’t universal because many buyers felt their listings might not get shown if they were too miserly in their compensation offer.  I myself was paid 3% on a listing during this time because the seller told me that he wanted buyer agents to show and sell it knowing they’d earn a commission equivalent to a million-dollar listing. 

Also, during this time, one of my broker associates spoke to a Trelora agent who encouraged him to put into the listing contract that the buyer would pay 2.8% instead of $3,000, and that indeed worked for him, although I’ve been advised since then that inserting an additional provision related to broker compensation was inappropriate.

In mid-2019, Trelora created a separate Realtor firm that operated side-by-side with their original non-Realtor firm for about two years. That non-Realtor firm appears now to have been phased out. Meanwhile, the Realtor firm has listed over 500 homes and has closed 450 of them. Of its first 50 listings, 33 offered 2.8% co-ops, three offered 3% co-ops, and seven offered 2.5% co-ops. Only three of the 50 offered less than 2%. 

The 50 most recent closings reflected the same shift I reported on last week: Only 13 offered 2.8%, 34 offered 2.5%, and none offered less than 2%.

My fellow Realtors will be less surprised by the change in co-op compensation than by Trelora becoming a Realtor brokerage, given its original animus toward Realtors.